Mark Perry has lofty goals for CU football after a strong spring track season

BOULDER — Last week at Pac-12 Media Day, CU wide receiver Dimitri Stanley told reporters that he’s the fastest player on the team and that

“We just had a little competition a couple weeks ago where it was just races,” Stanley said. “I won out with all of those. Sure, MP [Mark Perry] doesn’t like it. You’ve got people like Gonzo—Christian Gonzalez—and Daniel Arias that aren’t big fans of hearing that either. It’s about what you do that day and I won the day.”

On Saturday, following Colorado’s third fall practice, Mark Perry set the record straight.

“Well that’s not exactly what happened,” the sophomore safety told DNVR. “We had a summer competition with (strength) coach (Shannon) Turley and we did a lot of starts, get-offs, and they were calling the winner. We had like a 10-yard sprint, a 15-yard sprint; we did it all out of different positions. They would count how many wins each person got. He had the most wins but he didn’t win every single one.”

In case you’re wondering, Stanley won the most races, Perry won the second-most and cornerback Nigel Bethel came in third, according to Perry.

Every fall there’s a debate about who is the fastest on the team, but the competition between Stanley and Perry has a longer backstory: this spring, both Stanley and Perry joined Colorado’s track team and competed on the 4×100 meter relay team. Perry’s best time in the 100-meter dash this spring was a 10.65. Stanley’s was a 10.80.

Both Perry and Stanley say that head football coach Karl Dorrell was excited for them to run track, as long as it didn’t conflict with spring practices. Stanley added that offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Darrin Chiaverini was a little more hesitant.

“Coach Chev was kind of more iffy about it, just because he wanted me to kind of focus on football and knowing that I would have to be a leader of the wide receivers room this year,” Stanley said.

Both players said that they feel faster after running track. Perry said that he learned the fundamentals of how to run.

“Learning how to breathe while I’m running, it pays dividends,” Perry said. “Being out on the field during those long drives, I’m not getting tired as fast. I’ve learned how to breathe while I’m running to just catch my breath. Those long drives, I’m able to stay fresh.”

Perry’s role in Colorado’s defense increased last season. He played in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2019, starting one and holding down a significant role in another. He played primarily in the slot as Colorado’s “STAR” defender.

In 2020, Perry was a key player for the Buffs and he played more strong safety, where he was the opening-day starter. But Isaiah Lewis took that starting job for the rest of the season, outside of a game when Colorado started in its nickel package. That meant Lewis shifted into the slot and Perry started at strong safety.

This time around, Perry has an opportunity to be a full-time starter. Dorrell has liked what he’s seen.

“Mark had a good spring,” Dorrell said Saturday. “He did make a big, big jump from where he was in the fall so we expect him to continue to grow and build on what he was able to do this spring.”

Dorrell has been impressed by Lewis, too.

“Our current guys (at safety) who played last year, they’ve gotten a lot better,” Dorrell said. “They’re getting to where they’re savvy veterans. They’re getting close.”

Colorado lost three defensive starters from last season: lineman Mustafa Johnson, linebacker Akil Jones and free safety Derrion Rakestraw. Rakestraw’s departure opens up a starting job in the secondary, which will likely go to either Perry or Miller. How Miller, Perry and Lewis—and potentially a dark horse candidate, like Lewis last season—split the free safety, strong safety and STAR roles is anybody’s guess.

“The first couple days of camp I’ve been strictly free safety but the plan is, eventually, get me down into a nickel role and probably get Chris (Miller) to a safety role,” Perry said. “We’ve all trained at all of the positions so we know what to do and how to do it. It’s just a matter of what we need at the moment.”

Regardless of how the pieces fit together on game day, Perry has lofty expectations for his team.

“I want to be the top defense in the Pac-12,” Perry said. “I want to have the top secondary in the Pac-12 because I know we could do it. I’ve seen the work we’ve put in. We’ve done the work so all we’ve got to do is go out and execute.”

If Colorado’s defense can turn its potential into success, a special season could be on the way in Boulder.

“From a team standpoint, I want to win the (Pac-12) South, I want to go to the Pac-12 Championship, I want to do all those type of things because I’ve seen what we’ve done in the summer and what we’re doing now here in fall camp,” Perry said. “I know it’s possible.”